Messina bridge fund OK
Work on world's longest bridge to start by year's end
06 November, 18:21
(ANSA) - Rome, November 6 - Italy on Friday approved the last key start-up funds for a much-heralded bridge connecting Sicily to the Italian mainland.
Some 1.3 billion euros were earmarked for work on the bridge, a long-cherished project of Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, which is expected to start by the end of the year.
Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa, who is from Sicily, said "today is a particularly important day in Italian history".
"My grandfather spoke of a bridge like this as something that would bind Sicily and Calabria. He saw it as a sort of redemption for our island". "Many years have gone by but the time has now come".
"It's important not only for speeding up transport links. "It is first and foremost a cultural and moral redemption".
The opposition Democratic Party said the move disproved the government's claim that the bridge would pay for itself.
The small Italian Communist party said the money would be "welcomed by the Mafia".
The Messina bridge, which once built would be the longest suspension bridge in the world, was originally greenlighted by Berlusconi's previous government eight years ago but was shelved by an intervening centre-left government.
Berlusconi revived the project when he returned to office in May of last year.
Supporters hail the project as a huge job-creation scheme that would give Italy's image a major boost while bringing Sicily closer to the mainland in both physical, psychological and social terms.
But it has been opposed by environmentalists and dogged by concerns over its safety and fears of potential Mafia involvement.
The 3,690-metre-long bridge has been designed to be able to handle 4,500 cars an hour and 200 trains a day and would replace slow ferry services between the island and the mainland.
The 6.5-billion-euro bridge is set to be completed in 2017.
